Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

3 – Space, Time, Flow and Memory

43

Retention of musical form is the effect of a variable and rather unpre-

dictable interaction between working memory, sensory input and process-

ing, and long-term memory. Music psychologist Stephen McAdams

explains that

The capacity of memory structures in music listening is of para-

mount importance since musical structures are extended in time. The

perception of movement, of transformation and of musical signifi-

cance depend on the perceived element being heard in relation to

remembered elements. We might say that perception really only becomes

musical when it is "in relation to" events, sequences, progressions and struc-

turing in memory. The form of a piece of music is what gets accumu-

lated in memory, and thus the richness of that form depends very

heavily on one's capacities and experience as a listener. (McAdams,

1987)

Memory depicts the temporal flow of sound

In working memory, the macrotemporal listening dimensions pulse and

movement are created by perceptual processing. During this process,

impressions are retained, which may subsequently be wiped out or stored

in long-term memory. Pulse leaves the impression of tempo, movement an

impression of shape.

The impression of tempo is created by the awareness of regular repe-

tition. If the sensations of regularly repeated impulses are continuously fed

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The Musical Timespace

44

into working memory, auditory perception adapts to the regularity,

constituting the perceived tempo as a reference for further listening. If the

regular impulses stop, their tempo is retained and can be continued in

tapping, dancing or gestures.

The impression of shape in short-term memory is characterized in an

elegant way by the American musicologist Jan La Rue;

Music is essentially movement; it is never wholly static. The vibra-

tions of a single sustained note, the shock waves of a clipped staccato

induce motion even in isolation. Any sounds that follow may then

confirm, reduce, or intensify the embryonic sense of movement. At

the same time that a piece moves forward, it creates a shape in our

memories to which its later movement inevitably relates, just as the

motion of a figure skater leaves a tracing of visible arabesques on the

ice when the movement has passed far away. (La Rue, 1970)

Memorized representations of listening dimensions

Tempo and shape are the memorized representations of the macrotemporal

dimensions pulse and movement.

The microtemporal dimension timbre is precisely memorized as a

particular prominent quality of sound. A large number of distinctive

timbres are stored in long-term memory, permitting later recognition of

sound sources such as guitars, church bells, empty barrels, breaking glass

or familiar voices.

In the continuum of pitch, a focusing at a precise pitch

level is memorized as pitch height. It remains in short-term memory for a

while, and can be recalled and reproduced by a person of adequate

musical ability.

In Fig. 3.1, the memorized representations tempo, shape, prominent timbral

quality and pitch height are included in the model of listening dimensions.

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